


Carmen Sandiego: Legends Book 1: Drake's Fortune

by GalacticDefender4679



Series: Carmen Sandiego: Legends [1]
Category: Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019), Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: Treasure Hunting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-20 12:55:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18993085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalacticDefender4679/pseuds/GalacticDefender4679
Summary: Carmen Sandiego; world-renowned master thief and vigilante against evil has found herself in league with famed archeologist of the obscure Jackson Carol, as well as his colorful friends and the collectors of their many, many debts, most of whom also have connections to Carmen’s old friends at VILE. The only way to make them back off is to join Jack and some of his old friends on hunts for the ancient lost treasures of the world.





	1. Prologue

**For the record, this is going to be my own interpretation of Carmen’s origin story but drawing significant inspiration from Netflix’s version, and also some of these other characters (including my originals like Jack) and their adventures are inspired heavily by characters like Nathan Drake, Indiana Jones and others like them. Hope you enjoy.**

Carmen Isabella Sandiego has been a woman of mystery ever since she first started her criminal career; her motives and morals, her history and connections, her true name and nature, all of these have been top secret from the outside world. As well as her location at any given time, which is why the most common question about this chic and mystique femme fatale is…

“Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?” That’s what all of her wanted posters said anyway. As well as (at some points) her “number one fan” Inspector Chase Devineaux of Interpol, whom she always managed to evade, anger and baffle at every turn, much to his chagrin. However much Inspector Devineaux tried to end this trend and capture the elusive criminal and failed no matter what, Carmen would always taunt him before she left with a few simple words;

“Catch me if you can.” In fact, Chase had just heard someone whisper that nearby him as they slipped past him onto the train to Paris at Gare de Poitiers. A glance over his shoulder and he saw a young Latina woman with brown hair board the train right behind him and wink a blue eye at him.

“All aboard!” The conductor’s yell was just enough to make Chase feel a significant need to quickly jump on board, which he ran to quickly do just as the train was leaving, but unfortunately, he had once again lost his quarry in the crowd of people boarding as well. Not to mention the fact that his sudden appearance severely confused the conductor. “I’m sorry monsieur, can I help you?”

Chase quickly produced his badge. “Inspector Chase Devineaux, Interpol. Official business.”

“Oh uh, of course, sir. Please help yourself.” Don’t need to tell him twice, pal. Chase just hurried down the train as quickly as he could while checking each of the compartments to try and find his mark.

Said mark, however, had just opened up her compartment and was pleasantly surprised. “First Class? Sa-weet! Thanks, Player.”

“ _My treat, Red. You totally earned it._ ” Her young partner smirked over the communicator as she sat down.

“You are seriously spoiling me, kid. And I love you for doing it.” Carmen smiled as she sat down, put in some headphones and turned on her music. She was just about to settle in for the ride to Paris when she heard someone open the door to her compartment.

“Evening.” Americans. Two men; one seemingly not much older than her and another much older. It was the younger one talking. “Mind if we join you?”

“Sure. Cmon in.” These guys definitely weren’t Interpol. Or if they were, they didn’t recognize her. Which, when she thought about it, made a certain sense; Chase was the only one who had ever seen her face while she was in her professional clothes, and even then her wanted posters didn’t exactly show much of her face either. All she had to do if Chase was on the train was make sure her face was hidden before he made it and she was in the clear, which she quickly moved to do by pulling the hood of her hoodie up over her head and hiding her face.

But there was one thing she nearly forgot; Chase had already seen how she was dressed that night and she hadn’t had a chance to change before these two Americans had arrived. And what timing for her to remember that as Chase had just passed the compartment, but she had clearly caught his eye as he quickly came back and entered with a smile on his face.

“Well, well, well. It seems our little game of cat-and-mouse is finally at an end, madam.” But just before he could clap the cuffs, he heard a gun cock behind him. Carmen looked and saw that the younger American man had some sort of handgun aimed for the base of Chase’s spine.

“I’d start explaining if I were you, pal.” The gun soundly clicked as the slide locked into place.

“I hope you understand, monsieur, that you are threatening an agent of Interpol while in the middle of an arrest,” Chase said calmly as he raised his hands.

“And who exactly are you arresting, pal?” The older fellow asked.

“Why, none other than the elusive Carmen Sandiego.”

The Americans’ eyes popped as they heard that and they smiled at each other. “Well now.” The older one smirked as he lit up a cigar. “That changes things, now doesn’t it?”

“I’d say so, Sully.” The younger one tilted his gun to point up as he smirked. “How much?”

“I’m sorry?” Chase was understandably confused.

“How much are you willing to pay us to let you take her?”

“What?!” Chase and Carmen jinxed.

“You heard me, pal,” The American lowered and cocked his gun again, this time aiming it for the spot between his shoulder-blades. “Or did you forget about my friend Smith N. Wesson here?”

“Are you attempting to bribe an Interpol agent? Because if so, I can easily arrest the both of you as well.”

“Eh. It ain’t the first time.”

The younger man elbowed Sully in the side angrily with his free arm. “Shut up, Sully.”

“What? He’s not dumb enough to try and pull something.”

“That’s not saying much,” Carmen smirked. “He jumped off a roof to try and catch me tonight. Ended up taking a swan dive onto his own car.”

“Seriously?” Sully’s question was returned by a simple nod from the woman. “Huh. Okay, I stand corrected. Maybe you are dumb enough to try something.”

“Perhaps I am. What would you be able to do about-” Chase’s question was interrupted by a quiet gunshot before he fell to the ground. Carmen was nearly terrified until she saw something sticking out of his back; a tranq dart.

“Nice work, kid,” Sully smirked as he quickly grabbed up his bags. “You just made our night more complicated.”

“That’s what I’m here for, old-timer.” The younger man said as he followed suit. “Cmon sweetheart, we’ve only got 3 minutes before he wakes up.”

“Wait, what? What’re you talking about?” Carmen was rightly confused; why were these guys helping her escape the police?

“No time to explain. Cmon, let’s go.” The younger one just grabbed Carmen by the arm and dragged her out into the empty compartment behind the last one and quickly locked the door behind Sully.

Sully dropped his bags and sat down with a heavy breath. “Jack, ye’re gonna gimme a goddamn heart-attack one of these days, I swear.”

“You’re exaggerating Sully.” Jack spun his tranquilizer pistol on his finger before he threw it back into the duffle bag he pulled it out of. Then he looked across the compartment to their new ride-along. “So… Carmen Sandiego.”

“In the flesh, señor.” She scowled at her new basically captors. “So what’s the scheme here? Were you actually gonna turn me in if Chase paid you?”

“Well, _I_ wouldn’t have thought twice about it.” Sully puffed on his cigar, earning a scowl from the criminal. “But this kid here? He’s been hoping he’d run into you.”

“Why’s that?” Carmen looked at Jack. “Who are you anyway?”

“Jack Carol; archaeologist, expert on occult and obtainer of rare antiquities. This is my associate Sullivan Campbell; former US Navy pilot.”

Carmen seemed surprised. But then she just scoffed. “You’re that guy who believes in all those obscure mythological treasures, right?”

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“Alright, you’ve got my attention.” Carmen dropped her hood and put her hands behind her head. “Why did you want to run into me?”

“Because you’ve stolen one of my more famous finds and returned it to the museum in Utah.” Carmen raised her eyebrow at this in confusion, as if asking for clarification; she’d run a lot of ops in America. “The Cross of Coronado?”

“Oh yeah, I remember that. Huh. Almost got caught that time.” She looked across at the archaeologist with a strange expression on her face. “So you’re the one who found that thing, huh? What, did you wanna find me to thank me for stealing it back?”

“Well yeah. But I also had a question for you. How’d you get wrapped up in a life of crime? And why return what you steal? Who is Carmen Sandiego, really?”

Carmen smirked. “You want the whole story?”

“Is it a long one?” Sully asked.

“Eh. Fairly.” Carmen shrugged. “And even then, there are some parts of my formative years that I have trouble remembering.”

“Well, how about you start with what you _can_ remember?” asked Jack.

Carmen sighed. “That starts after my third birthday. Before that, zip. I woke up in an alley near the beach in Buenos Aires. All I had in the world was an old silver locket and a set of Russian nesting dolls. Well, and a few minor burns. Still no clue how I got those though.”

“You still got the locket? I might be able to date it.”

“Never take it off.” And indeed; looping a finger across her collarbone, she pulled an old-fashioned heart-shaped sterling silver locket out from under her shirt.

“Not bad. Victorian design, good condition. And the engraving… ‘Storge’; ancient Greek word for familial love. Gift from your parents?”

“Yeah, that’s my best guess. Especially given the picture.” She opened it up and it showed a picture of a baby girl (clearly Carmen herself) in the arms of a loving young couple. “Only one problem; I have no idea who they are.”

“Hmm. Yeah, I don’t think I recognize them either. Sully?”

The old-timer gave a good hard look at the picture with a scrutinizing eye. “Mmmm… Nah I don’t think so.” Then something apparently occurred to him and he put a hand to his chin pondering. “Unless… Nah, that’s impossible.”

“What? Do you know them?” Carmen asked hopefully.

“Eh, I _might’ve_ known your old man twenty years ago, but I’m not too good with faces from those days, so unless I have a name, I got nothin’.”

“Well at least it’s a start,” Jack shrugged. “Maybe we’ll find a name later. Anyway, keep going.”

“Right.” Carmen cleared her throat and got back to her story. “Even as young as I was, I knew I would have to do my best to take care of myself on the streets. But I knew no one was going to want to hire a three-year-old orphan who couldn’t even remember her own name, so I turned to petty crime. Got caught a few times when I first started picking pockets, but no one wanted to press any charges because I was such an innocent little ragamuffin. After those days and a few close encounters with the authorities, I managed to build myself an underworld rep as the greatest pickpocket in Buenos Aires by the time I was six. And even with those sorts of skills and the pesos I got with them, I felt like I was missing something. Then it hit me; I still needed a good education and a roof over my head. So I almost thought about turning myself into the orphanage until I was found and taken in off the streets. By VILE.”

“The import-export company? From the Canary Islands? Why would they want you?”

“For her talent.” Sully puffed his cigar as he leaned back. “I’ve done my research into these VILE guys. They put on a good import-export act, but it’s just a cover story. They’re actually a thief-training academy specializing in selling stolen goods.”

“That’s what they told me too.” Carmen scowled as she remembered. “But that was a lie too. I found that out after I completed my massive 10-year-long education on everything; language, customs, geography, everything a good thief needs to know. They called me Black Sheep, cause I never fit in anywhere, outside the school or in. Even after all of that, I still couldn’t bring myself to work for them, especially if it meant stealing anything of importance to the people. And thanks to that I wasn’t allowed to graduate from anything… except life.” Jack and Sully were surprised but confused by what she meant by that. “I figured that out during my class’ graduation ceremony, which I snuck into. One of my like-minded classmates was led into a back room and…”

She started to tear up as she remembered what she saw that night; her teacher shot her classmate straight through the chest, but she couldn’t bring herself to voice it and just moved on. “Anyway. Once he was disposed of, I learned what VILE actually stood for; Villains International League of Evil. After that, I knew I had to get out of the Canary Islands as fast as I could. So I packed my bags as light as I could and ran away. Jumped into the ocean and swam for what felt like an eternity until I landed in Morocco. After that, I chartered the first boat I could get back to Argentina. But I ended up drifting through Panama and landed in California. That’s when I made my vow; I would only use my talents to serve the greater good, even if it meant stealing from the only real family I’d ever known for the last ten years. But I knew they’d be looking for Black Sheep, so I took my new name based on where I was and the opera I’d grown up loving at the academy. That’s when people began asking; where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?”

The story ended just as the train stopped in Orléans, and these two Americans were amazed. “Goddamn, kid.” was all Sully could muster.

“Your turn. How did you end up tracking down a relic like that cross?”

Jack leaned back in his seat as the train left the station. “Well, I’m not the first archaeologist in my family. My parents were basically obsessed with relics like that cross. Hell, far as I can remember, my dad’s still after some of King Arthur’s toys. I’m honestly more interested in the heroes of real life wherever available, but I’m not one to turn down the fantastic whenever I can get it. Heck, that’s how I met Sully here.”

“Oh yeah? How’s that?”

“He was in Columbia lookin’ to steal Francis Drake’s ring from a museum when he was 14. I caught him tryin’ ta pick my pocket, didn’t I ya little scamp?” Sully grabbed Jack into a headlock and started noogying him.

“Ah- Sully! Knock it off, man!” Jack tossed Sully off and the old man gave a simple laugh as he sat back down. Jack cleared his throat as he straightened his hair. “Anyway yeah, I picked his pocket. But he didn’t figure out until later that I took the key to the display case the ring was in from his wallet.”

Carmen chuckled. “Oh my god, you’re a thief too?”

“Takes one to catch one,” Jack smirked. “Anyway, once I stole the ring and its accompanying decoder disk, Sully and his client from those days stole the decoder and tried to kill me.”

“Hey, cmon now kid, I saved your sorry ass from Sarah’s goons.” Sully smacked his young partner.

“Yeah, took ya long enough. One of ‘em almost popped me in the face.”

“Uh ladies, ladies, I hate to burst your bubble but I still have one question,” Carmen said quickly.

“Namely?”

“What does any of this have to do with me?”

“Ah. Right well, I’m glad you asked. See, Sir Francis’ ring has coordinates engraved on it that will hopefully give the exact location of where off the Panamanian coast Drake was buried. And with any luck, he’ll have had his journal buried with him, along with some secrets of his.”

Carmen raised an eyebrow. “What kind of secrets?”

“Best guess? The ‘ancient lost treasure’ kind. There’s only one problem; even with Sully’s connections in the Navy, no one in their right minds is gonna let us legally take a boat down to the Caribbean to try and find Francis Drake’s rotten, possibly waterlogged, corpse.”

“And I factor into this how?”

“Well, if we can’t do this legally…” Sully puffed some more smoke. “You see where I’m goin’ with this?”

“Yeah, I see it. I just don’t understand why you need me.”

“Well, we’re not the only ones looking for Drake’s coffin and loot. We’re gonna need a gang if we wanna get our hands on it.” Jack shrugged.

“And what, you think three people are gonna be enough for that?”

“No. But five, and we’re good to go. Six, if we get someone on the computers and mapping, and we’re golden.”

“And what, you think I’ve got a team that can fill a bill like that?”

“You tell me,” Sully smirked. “Or should I ask my old friend Jenny Andrews to join us?” Once Sully said that name, Carmen could’ve sworn she heard Player gasp over her earring communicator.

“ _No. Way. Is that Uncle Sully?!_ ” That seriously threw Carmen for a loop.

“Wait, uncle?” she asked.

“Oh, is that Jim you got on the other end there? Put him on speaker, I wanna talk.”

“How do you know Player?”

“Oh are you kidding, his mom’s my sister. I used to babysit him all the time before I met Jack.”

“Yeah, and I’ve also heard rumors that a couple of my old friends from Boston U are in on your operation too,” Jack smirked. “Zack and Ivy Michaels? Ring any bells?”

Carmen smiled. “You know your stuff.”

“I know my people. Now.” Jack bounced up from his seat and smirked as he extended a hand. “Whaddaya say? You in?”

Carmen smiled as she stood up. “I have my conditions; First off, I don’t kill. Second, if we _do_ find anything of any historic or cultural importance, it goes to a museum. Third, we stay as far out of view of the public eye as we can until this whole thing blows over. Deal?”

“Deal.” Jack clapped his hand to hers. “And as an added bonus, anything we _do_ end up giving to a museum, I wire you and your gang 5% of the price.”

“We’ll take it, no questions asked.” Just as they made that deal, the train stopped dead at Gare de Lyon in Paris.

“Here’s our stop.” Sully and Jack casually grabbed their bags and the three of them simply left the train heading for the river. But not before Carmen saw Chase finally regaining consciousness in the compartment the group left him in. She knew the train was about to leave any minute, so she turned to face the train just as he looked out the window of the coach and slid him a sly wink just as the train started going. Clearly, he was unbelievably angry at having missed the master thief again and even as he tried to get off the train before it cleared the platform, the lovely Latina sauntered away with her new partners in crime.


	2. Ambush

_Location: 5 Km off the coast of Portobelo District, Colón Province, Panama_

_Time: Two weeks after the France meeting_

Out in Panamanian waters, the coffin hunt was well underway with Jack and Carmen diving to find it and Carmen’s teammates Zack and Ivy; a brother-sister team of red-headed Boston crooks, on the boat above, with Player on the coms. And Sully? Well, you’ll find out.

Meantime, Jack had just hit the reef below and started trawling when he saw Carmen seemed a bit forlorn about something. “Somethin’ on your mind, Carmen?”

“It’s just… weird being this close to my birthplace without knowing anything about who I am.” the thief relented as she rested on a stone. “I mean, Player’s been trying to track down my parents with his tech since I met him.”

“That reminds me. You still haven’t mentioned how you met Sully’s nephew. Or Zack and Ivy, for that matter.” Jack was right; she hadn’t.

“Ah well, I actually got a call from Jim after my little swimming adventure to Morocco.” Carmen smiled as she kept swimming alongside him. “Turns out _that_ was the first world record I set.”

“I can imagine. Swimming all the way from the Canary Islands to Morocco? I mean it’s not much distance, but that sort of thing takes dedication.”

“Yeah. Anyway, he managed to get in touch with me after I landed in California through the record-book info and said he wanted to work with me.” Carmen gave a small giggle. “Even when I told him what I was planning on doing for a living, he _still_ wanted to be my partner. And given his wicked hacking skillz, I don’t blame him.”

“What about the Michaels?”

“We met up with them on one of my ops in Boston. Turns out VILE was using a donut joint on the south side as a front.”

Jack chuckled. “Seriously? That’s ridiculous.”

“Says the guy who wants me to believe he’s the heir to Sir Francis Drake,” Carmen smirked.

“Why is that so hard to believe?” Jack suddenly bumped into something that gave a low metallic *ting* against his air-tank. Quickly he turned over and saw a metal box with what looked like Sir Francis’ coat of arms. “Uh, y’know what? Hold that thought.” Quickly he tuned his radio to the boat up top. “Drop the line, Zack.”

“ _Roger that, headin’ down._ ” Soon enough, a large yellow freight-hook was lowered down above the coffin. Jack quickly hooked it in and allowed the crew above to hoist it up and place it on the deck.

“Aw man, this is huge.” Ivy smiled as she looked at the coffin. “We could go down in history for finding this.” She was just about to knock her knuckle against the coffin when…

“Don’t do that; it’s lead-lined.” That single blunt comment from Jack instantly made Ivy back off.

“Why would a guy like Drake wanna be buried in lead?” asked Zack.

“Search me; all I know is that it’s time to get to the bottom of this.” With that, Jack quickly jammed a crowbar into the seam under the lid and started heaving.

“Are you sure you wanna be defiling your ancestor’s remains like that?” Carmen smiled.

“You make it sound so dirty.” Jack quipped as he moved to another side of the coffin and started prying again. “Besides, I thought you said you didn’t believe me.”

“Well, I _am_ a very well-read girl and apparently everything I’ve ever read about Drake says he didn’t have any children.” Carmen retorted.

“Well, history can be wrong, y’know.” Jack smiled. “For example, it wasn’t Edison who finally nailed the invention of the lightbulb, it was Joseph Swan.” Then he dropped the crowbar. “And more contextually applicable, you can’t defile an empty coffin.” Carmen and her crew were confused until Jack quickly pushed the lid off the coffin to reveal…

“What the hell…?!” Zack’s statement about summed things up: Jack was right; the coffin was empty. Aside from a small metal sea-chest which Jack opened and inside was a small leather-bound book.

He opened it and what he saw drove him to give a small chuckle. “Grandpa Frank, you devil.”

“What’s the big idea, Jack?” Ivy was a bit angry. “You said we’d find Drake’s body out here.”

“Uh no, I merely _implied_ that.” Jack smiled as he closed the book and stowed it inside his wetsuit. “What I _said_ was we’d find Drake’s _coffin_ , I didn’t say anything about there actually being a body in it.”

“Wait a minute Jack, if my team hadn’t agreed to come out here with you, you wouldn’t’ve-” Carmen was interrupted by Jack’s chuckling.

“Hey-heh-hey! There’s more to this, y’know Carm.”

“And what _exactly_ would that be? Cmon Jack, don’t you think we have a right to see that thing?” Interrupted again.

“Eh, whoa-whoa. Can you uh… Can you gimme a second?” Jack quickly walked to one end of the boat and pulled his walkie-talkie off his belt. “Jim, are you seeing something off our starboard side?”

“ _Yeah, looks like a fleet of small boats,_ ” he replied, watching the radar from his computer in the team’s hotel room in Colón. “ _You don’t think it’s Interpol, do you?_ ”

“Nope, might be worse.” Then he turned the walkie on. “Sully? Uh, we got some local trouble headin’ our way. Grand entrance would not go amiss.”

“ _Roger that, I’m on my way._ ” With that, Jack dropped the radio and walked back to the other end of the boat.

“What’s going on?” Carmen asked.

“Ehhh… pirates.” Jack was clearly looking for a calm way to say that, but he couldn’t think of anything so pirates it was.

“Pirates? Seriously?” Ivy didn’t seem to want to believe him.

But Jack just pulled a plastic case up onto the crates nearby and opened it to reveal… guns?! “Yeah, the modern kind; they don’t take prisoners. Well, at least not _male_ prisoners.”

“What the heck’re you talkin’ about…?” Ivy’s question was soon answered when she saw a swarm of small boats headed their way. “Oh, that ain’t good.”

“Yeah and normally, I’d suggest we call the Panamanian Coast Guard or something, but we don’t exactly have a permit to be out here.” Jack loaded the guns and smirked. “Also I have a trio of wanted criminals on-board, so unless we all want to end up in a Panamanian prison, we should probably handle this ourselves.”

“Uh, which is worse in this case; pirates or prison?” Ivy asked in concern.

“You’ve obviously never been in a Panamanian prison before. I have; trust me, it’s hell.” Jack handed a pistol to everyone, though Carmen flinched when she got hers. “You guys know how to use these?”

“W- Well yeah, but I thought I made it clear that I don’t kill.” Carmen retorted.

“Kill or be killed, Sandiego.” Jack cocked his pistol. “Or captured, tortured and _then_ killed; whichever comes first.” With that incentive, Carmen and the others quickly cocked their guns as well. “Alright. Here we go.” Once he walked past, Carmen looked down at the weapon in her hands with a concerned look on her face; she knew that once she went down this path, there was no going back.

“Oh boy…” She quickly took cover as one of the pirates’ boats sailed up and started firing.

“How’d these guys find us out here?!” Zack yelled as he fired at the enemies.

“Ah, these guys have been tailin’ me and Sully for weeks.” Jack rolled his eyes. “Swear I got ‘em off our trail by France though.”

“So what’d ya do to piss ‘em off?” asked Ivy.

“Eh, it’s kind of a long story.” Jack quickly grabbed a frag grenade near the crane and hurled it at the boat, blowing the craft apart. Another boat quickly took the position of the last

“Well, whatever it was, they sure don’t like you for it.” Carmen quipped.

“Less talky, more shooty!” Jack growled as the bullets flew into the enemies, sending boat after boat into firing position. “Cmon Sully, what’s taking so long?” Suddenly the group heard more footprints on the other side of the boat.

“We’ve been boarded!” Zack yelled and fired at the pirates on the deck, prompting the others to follow his lead. Then a larger boat sailed up alongside the ship, with machine gun turrets and rocket launchers, one of the aforementioned rockets blowing the cabin up.

“Jesus! Okay, this oughtta be fun.” Jack rolled his eyes at this new development, until finally a sea-plane flew in and looked about ready to bomb the enemy ship. “WHOO! Nice timing, Sully!”

Zack looked around the boat and groaned. “Somethin’ tells me we’re not gettin’ the security deposit back on this boat.”

“Relax Zack, you’ll be able to pay for it. Remember; five percent~.” Jack smiled. Zack returned the smile at that, but when Sully dropped the bomb on the enemy boat, flaming shrapnel flew off and hit Jack’s boat, setting it more on fire. “Ah, shit! The ship’s about to blow! We’re gonna have to jump for it!” The team didn’t have to be told twice as they all quickly jumped overboard (with Carmen and Zack resealing the coffin and throwing it overboard for safety’s sake) just as the fire reached the fuel tank and blew the ship sky-high.

Sully landed the sea-plane nearby, where everyone quickly breached for breath, and opened the door chuckling at Jack. “I can’t leave you kids alone for a minute, can I?”

Jack laughed as he swam over and grabbed the door-frame. “Ah, I had everything under control until they blew up the damn boat.” Sully just chuckled as he helped pull everyone on-board, while Jack watched Carmen swim over. “You okay?”

“Nothing a stiff drink won’t fix.” She smiled.

“ _Then you’re in luck, Carmen. There’s a street-fiesta happening in Colón tonight._ ” Player said over the radio. “ _Anyone up for a night on the town?_ ”

Sully chuckled. “Readin’ my mind, Jimbo. Now let’s get outta here before that fire attracts any more attention.” Once everyone was on-board and the coffin had been hooked up to the underside of the plane, Sully set their heading back to town.

Jack smiled as he opened his wetsuit and retrieved the still-intact journal, which he flashed to Sully. “Gift from Grandpa.”

“Ho-ho! So you _were_ right!” he smiled.

“Hell yeah, I was.” Jack smiled. “Drake faked his death, alright. Which means he must’ve been onto something _huge_.”

“Well, we’d better hope we’re not the only ones after it.” Carmen smiled. “You know a good museum in Panama where we can donate the coffin?”

“Of course I do.” Jack’s pride was well-founded and correct; after calling the history museum in the capital and telling them about the coffin (which Jack lied about being filled), the curator said they would be there in a few days to pick it up.

That night, the whole crew including Player; a young brown-haired teen with blue eyes, were at the street festival hanging out. “Alright, so when Drake sailed into the Pacific, he took the Spanish fleet _completely_ by surprise.” Jack’s explanation was met with several “M-hm”-s and “Uh-huh”-s from Sully and Zack. “He took everything; their ships, their charts, notes, journals- and he recorded all of it in this journal.”

“Okay, so this-”

“But” Jack interrupted Sully. “Once he got back to England, the queen confiscated all his charts and logbooks - including this one - and swore Drake and his entire crew to silence.”

“Yeah, so this-” Zack started.

“See, Drake found something on that trip, guys. Something so secret, so _valuable_ , they couldn’t risk anyone leaking it.” Jack smiled.

“Alright Jack, just pretend for two minutes that Zack and I don’t care about any of that and cut to the chase, will ya?” Sully said quickly.

“Ugh. A man only interested in the climax.” Carmen sighed, flipping her hair. “Must be a real hit with the ladies, huh?”

“Never had any complaints,” Sully smirked.

“Alright then, smart-ass. Let’s skip straight to the juicy part, just for you two.” Jack smiled as he opened the journal to a certain page and slid it between Sully and Zack.

And the title at the top of the page was enough to make Sully chuckle. “Eh?” Jack smiled as if asking for praise.

“El goddamn Dorado.” Sully smiled.

“The City of Gold?” Carmen asked in excitement.

“Like I said, he was onto something big.” Jack leaned back in his chair as the band played.

“Well, what else does it say?” Zack asked as he grabbed for the journal, but Jack snagged it away.

“Oh, so _now_ you’re interested huh?” he smirked.

“Well yeah, duh!”

“Well then, sorry but no; nothing else.” Jack flashed a torn page in the back. “Someone ripped the last page out.” Sully and Zack shrugged. “I’m tellin’ ya Sully; this is it. This is finally it.”

“Yeah.” Sully smiled until he saw some cops across the street, looking at one of Carmen’s wanted posters. “Only we got one little red problem.”

“What? What, me?” Carmen asked.

“You draw fuzz like moths to a flame.” Sully indicated to the cops. “And if Interpol gets wind of where you’re going, we could lose a lot more than just money.”

“Sully, Carmen and her gang can hold her own. You should’ve seen ‘em on the boat.”

“Alright fine. How about she goes over to those guys and tells them ‘hey, I just found the City of Gold’? Maybe their commander can get a message to Interpol tonight. Or better yet, maybe her friends at VILE can just overhear us and meet us there?”

“Oh gimme a break, old man.” Jack groaned.

“Jack… do you trust me?” Sully asked.

The young archaeologist rolled his eyes. “For reasons beyond my comprehension.”

“Good. Because if we bring her along, we’re gonna have every two-bit crook in the western hemisphere racin’ us to this score unless we leave right now. Alone.”

“You’re a _real_ gentleman, Sully,” Jack said sarcastically.

“I know. It stinks.”

Carmen rolled her eyes at this little exchange. “Y’know, you _are_ likely to run into trouble even without us. And you haven’t seen Zack drive a 4x4 yet, so if there _are_ any VILE agents listening in on us right now, you’re going to need us if you have any hope of beating us to that score.”

“Cmon Uncle Sully, we can handle it,” Player begged. “Please?”

Sully groaned and rolled his eyes. “Alright. But you stay here and watch the computers from the hotel room. If your mom hears about _anything_ happening to you, she’d kill me.”

“Got it.”

“Alright. Looks like we’re going after El Dorado.” Jack smiled as they got up from their table and Carmen slapped some pesos down to pay the tab. “Pack your gear; we leave first thing tomorrow.” With that, the team left for their apartment, unbeknownst to who was in the shadows nearby.


	3. The Road to El Dorado

_Location: Somewhere in the Amazon Rainforest, Bolivia_

_Time: 36 hours after leaving Panama_

The jungle heat bore down as Jack, Sully, and Carmen mantled around the boulders and massive trees that composed the famed rainforest. Zack and Ivy had stayed behind to guard the 4x4 just in case, which Sully’s adrenaline levels found _very_ agreeable. In fact, on the drive over, he had asked if the boy had learned to drive on the set for “Smokey and the Bandit”, to which Zack simply retorted “Pfft. I wish.”

Anyway, Jack and Carmen had gotten a decent lead on the old man, and he was not happy, though he was incredibly tired. “Ho- Hold on. Hold on, kids. I ain’t as young as I used to be.”

Jack chuckled as he walked ahead. “Yeah, you weren’t too old for that little barmaid in Lima, were you?”

Carmen was confused about that, understandably. “Ha! Well, that was different. Although I must admit, equally as strenuous.”

“Ew! Sully!” Jack laughed at Carmen’s disgust at his aged partner.

“Well just hang in there, old timer.” He double-checked the map to know what he was talking about. “We’re nearly there.” He grunted the last part as he jumped from a small ledge into a brook.

Sully chuckled about something. “Y’know, this reminds me; Did I ever tell you about the time I pawned a phony 16th-century Santo off on Pablo Escobar?”

Carmen laughed. “Seriously? That sounds like suicide.”

Sully just chuckled. “Yeah, risky move; I know, but by the time he figured it out, I was-” He trailed off when he saw Jack was paying more attention to the map than his story. “Jack, are you even listening to me?”

“Hangin’ on every word.” Naturally, he wasn’t; he was more interested in something he just picked up off a rock nearby.

“Ah, why waste my breath?” Sully shrugged and just kept walking.

“What’ve you got there?” Carmen’s question made Jack smile as he produced the small silver and blue item.

“Mosaic earring. Think it’s Incan?”

Carmen examined it and smiled. “Definitely. Oughtta make a good addition to your museum donations.”

“My thoughts exactly.” Jack smiled as he pocketed the gem.

When they hit a particularly thick part of the brush, Jack produced a knife and slashed through the foliage and led the team ahead. “You really think Francis Drake came all the way up here, huh kid?” Sully asked.

“He’s right. We’re an awful long way from England.” Carmen agreed. Jack didn’t answer for a second as he simply slashed away one especially dense leaf, but was confused when he didn’t see anything.

As were Carmen and Sully. “Well?” the latter asked.

“I don’t understand.” Jack raised an eyebrow as he looked around. “Jim, are you sure this is the right place?”

“ _Definitely. GPS says you’re right on top of it._ ”

“Maybe you’re not reading that thing right.” Sully produced his cell phone. “Let me see it.”

Player sent him the feed from the GPS tracking system he was using, but it just confirmed what he said. “ _No, you’re definitely in the right place._ ”

“But there’s nothing here.” Carmen was rightly confused; all that build-up for an empty clearing? It didn’t make sense. “Must be a dead end.”

“Easy, Red. Just relax, guys.” Jack tried to calm them down. “Let’s take a look around, see if we can find anything.” They simply started wandering around the clearing until they found a small pass. And at the end of it…

“Aha! Bingo.” Jack’s happiness was well-deserved; in the clearing past the pass were several pillars made of carved stone.

Sully chuckled. “Well now, this is more like it.” The three looked around with great interest in the area.

“Hey Jack, what do you think this is; Incan?” Carmen asked, examining the stones.

“Nah. Older.” Jack examined a stone on the ground and gave it a scrutinizing look. “I’d say about two thousand years older.”

“Huh. Hard to believe there were people down here that long ago.” Sully shrugged.

“I know, right?” Jack climbed up the stonework to get an aerial view and smiled. “Just goes to show what you can learn out in the field.” He soon moved to try and cross an old fallen pillar to another plinth, but it shifted. “Whoa.”

“Careful up there,” Sully warned.

“Yeah, yeah, I hear ya.” Jack quickly leaped to the plinth on the other side and saw a large boulder on another ledge. And he noticed something about the earth beneath it.

“Hey, you guys mind checking the ground over there?” he asked.

“I gotcha.” Carmen walked over and once she set foot on the point, she heard something strange. “What the-?” She quickly ducked down onto her hands and knees and gave the ground a few knocks, and the sound repeated with each one. “Sounds like wood. And like there’s a hollow area underneath.”

“We’ve gotta find a way to smash through this.” Sully smiled, thinking about what might be below that wood.

“I think I already have an idea on that front.” Jack smiled at the boulder. “Carmen, you wouldn’t happen to have a high-powered grappling hook, would you?”

“Yeah, but I don’t think its line is strong enough for this,” she said honestly.

Jack sighed. “Alright, stand clear. I’ll see what I can do from my end.” It took a bit of work but finally, he was on the ledge behind the boulder, which he started to push down. “Heads up!” Once the boulder fell from the ledge, it punched through the wood like a battering ram, splintering it and opening a cavern.

“Nice work, kid.” Sully smiled as Jack jumped down to the others.

“What do you boys say we find out where this leads?” Carmen smiled.

“Ladies first,” Jack smirked.

“My, aren’t we the gentleman?” Carmen smiled as she sauntered into the cavern with the boys following her into the dark.

A dark that Sully didn’t exactly trust, walking behind Jack and Carmen. “Uhhh. Think we’re gonna need the flashlights for this one.” Unfortunately, once he turned on his light, it woke a large swarm of bats and sent them flying around the group, making Carmen and Jack shriek as they flew out of the cave.

Once they passed… “Dammit, Sully!”

“Sorry Jack. My bad.” Jack rolled his eyes at his old partner as he and Carmen turned on their lights as well and walked down the cavern until they found a large antechamber at the bottom of a ruined set of stairs.

“What a warm and homey place, huh?” Sully asked sarcastically.

Jack laughed. “Well, not quite what you were expecting, huh?”

“Yeah. Where’s all the damn gold?” Sully was getting angry.

“Doubt we’ll find any here.” Carmen examined the walls with a scrutinizing look on her face. “Looks like this place was picked clean centuries ago.” She walked ahead into the next cave, leaving the others behind.

“No-good limey pirate.” Sully groaned, clearly insulting Drake. But Jack found something on the ground that interested him.

“No, this wasn’t Grandpa.” He picked up the item; a rusted-out conquistador helmet and handed it to Sully. “Look at this; looks like the Spaniards got here first.” Sully just gave an exasperated growl and threw the helmet away, making it pang loudly off a stone. “Oh cmon Sully, what the hell?”

“Jack, I’m not lookin’ for a rusty Sunday bonnet!” he growled. “I’m up to my eyebrows in debt.” He sat on a stone nearby and gave an angry sigh. “I was _really_ countin’ on this one.”

“Yeah. Too many big bar tabs in Lima, huh?” Jack smiled.

Sully chuckled at that as he scraped some rocks out of his boots. “Well, that and a few bad deals.”

“ _Yeah, well Mom’s always told you to stay away from the bad guys._ ” Player had the coms restricted to the men right now. “ _And the bad **girls.**_ ”

“Yeah? Maybe she should tell _Jack_ that.” Sully smiled. “At least the last part.”

Jack chuckled in genuine humor. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Our new ride-along,” Sully replied. “Don’t think I haven’t been seein’ the way you’re eyein’ her.”

“Carmen? Pfft. Please! This is just a job. And you know I never have relationships with clients. Especially not after what happened with Emily.” Jack smiled. “Besides, I think you snuffed any chance I had with her when you told her to dress up and go talk to those cops.”

“Ha-ha. All’s fair in love and war, Jack.” Sully replied, putting his boots back on.

“Oh yeah?” Jack pulled his old friend from his seat. “And what if you can’t tell the difference?”

“Then, my friend, you are in _deep_ shit.” The old man smiled as he and Jack wandered after Carmen.

“What’re you guys talkin’ about?” she asked.

“Nothin major.” Sully looked around. “But I gotta say, those Spaniards sure left a lot of junk behind.”

“Yeah well, they always do.” Jack very nearly stepped off a ledge at the end of the cavern until he caught himself. “Watch yourselves; there’s a pretty huge drop here.”

“Think you can grapple us across, Carmen?” Sully asked.

“No, I’d need to recalibrate my grappling guns for our combined weight.” Carmen groaned.

“Not to worry.” Jack pulled his pistol and aimed for a barrel near the base of a column across the way. “I got this.” One pull of the trigger and the barrel exploded, sending the column falling down to form a bridge.

“Ha! That’ll work!” Sully smiled as Jack holstered his gun. The three quickly ran across the column and found a large door in the other room connected to a large chain.

“Hang on, lemme do this.” Sully walked over and pulled on the chain, raising the large stone door. Once it went up, Carmen saw something in the other room; an old wagon of stones. Quickly she ran through and grabbed it, pushing it under the door. Sully let the door drop onto the wagon and quickly rolled under just before the weight of it crushed the wagon into splinters. “Whew. That was a little too close.”

Carmen chuckled. “If I had a nickel for every time I said that…”

“Let’s just hope this place has a back-door, huh?” Sully said realistically.

“Should be.” Jack looked around until his eyes locked onto some sort of large structure in the middle of the room. “Y’know, this looks familiar.” Quickly he opened Drake’s journal and found a picture similar to the structure. “Yeah, here we are. Looks like some sort of lamp or- or brazier. See if you can light it.”

“So, after all your bitchin’ about the cigar, _now_ it comes in handy huh?” Sully quickly flipped out his lighter and flicked it on, lighting the oil in the brazier. Suddenly the fire caught onto something in large pipes connected to the structure and lit a few hanging lamps.

Unfortunately, it also showed that the doorway out was blocked by broken wood. Thankfully, Jack still had a ton of ammo left, so with one shot from his gun at one of the hanging lamps, the wood caught fire and burned away. “Nice!”

“Beautiful!” Sully chuckled. Carmen rolled her eyes: men; always wanting to light something on fire. Still, she couldn’t argue that it helped as the wood quickly burned away and allowed the team a chance to run through to the next chamber… which held a large sinkhole.

“Great. Now what?” Carmen asked simply. Jack smiled as he looked around at the ledges.

“Now…” He quickly leaped to one of the ledges and smiled back at Carmen and Sully. “We take the high-road.”

“Uh yeah, I might’ve been able to do that thirty years ago.” Sully reminded.

“Yeah-yeah. You in, Carm?” Jack smiled.

“Always.” The crook quickly leaped between the ledges along with Jack, a few of which slid loose until they slid down a long vine to the bottom of the pit. Then with another bullet into another pile of gunpowder barrels, a column quickly fell and made a ramp for Sully.

“Cmon down, old timer, or we’ll take your cut!” Jack’s taunt gave the old man a serious incentive to slide down the ramp and catch up as they ran down the next tunnel, Carmen finding…

“Another brazier. Sully?” The old man quickly struck another light and set the brazier burning, sealing one door behind them and opening another in front of them. “Y’know, it’s times like these when you really have to wonder how these ancient cultures built stuff like this.”

“I know, right?” Jack smiled. “Still, if it means we find El Dorado, I’m not one to question it.” Finally, they found a large vaulted chamber with ledges on each side of the room and a sealed door on the opposite wall. “Alright, now what do we do?” He quickly started parkouring to the left ledge and saw something on the wall. “Wait a sec, I think I recognize these symbols.” Quickly he reopened Drake’s journal to a different page. “The order of these signs has some importance.” And indeed on the page were the symbols on the walls, all numbered. Quickly he jumped around the chamber, pressing the symbols on the walls and revealing them to be buttons which rose large square columns from the ground until a hole in the floor finally opened.

“Whoa.” Carmen was rightly in awe as she saw the floor open to a hole with water at the bottom. Jack laughed in success. “Long way down.”

“Yeah, looks like someone cut a ladder into the side.” Jack jumped down the floor and walked to the ladder. “Wait here, I’ll go check it out.”

“Alright, just be careful,” Sully ordered. Jack nodded as he started climbing down the ladder until he dropped down onto a ledge and climbed into another hallway where he found a large cubic stone on a track. Pushing it all the way to one end, the chains in the hallway started cranking and released a water-flow.

“Okay, looks like we’re getting somewhere.” Jack smiled as the water level started to rise until the flow stopped.

“Aw, don’t tell me you’re gonna swim in that!” Sully asked in disgust.

“I’ve been in worse!” Jack smiled. “Cannonball!” Quickly he jumped in and started swimming to a large cave on the other side. “Whew. Man, I am really wet.”

“Yeah, and if it’s all the same to you, I’d prefer not to be able to say the same.” Carmen smiled as she fired her grappling hook into the side of the downward cave and swung to the one Jack was in. She smiled at her entrance as the two started wandering the tunnel, climbing around on rocks until they finally found a way around to the other side of the door. “Alright Sully, we made it.”

“And I’m doing my best to refrain from knock-knock jokes!” Jack smiled.

Sully laughed from the other side of the door. “Appreciate it! Can you get this open?”

Jack smiled at the pile of gunpowder barrels near the door. “Oh, I’ll think of something.” He pulled his gun again and smirked. “You might wanna duck.” Without any more warning than that, he fired and blew the barrels, reducing the door to boulders.

Sully smiled as he walked through. “Ha-Ha! Nice one, kid!”

“I aim to please, old-timer.” Jack holstered his pistol as the three of them kept wandering the tunnel until they found another chain-door.

“I’ve got this one,” Sully said quickly as he and Jack grabbed the chains. This time, the door stayed open and revealed a floorless hallway with a pathway of scaffolding leading to the other end.

“Ah…” Jack said in concern as he started walking on the ancient scaffolding. “This looks safe.” Clearly sarcasm, but the scaffolding _did_ hold up… until Jack and Carmen passed the first column in the middle of the room. After that, it started collapsing, along with the columns. Quickly the two started running along in fear of falling to their deaths or being crushed under one of the toppling columns. Finally, they made it to the end just as the crumbling stopped.

“Jesus Christ! You guys okay?!” Sully yelled to them.

“Estamos bien!” Carmen yelled back. Then she looked at Jack as Sully started hopping across. “Stuff breaks around you a lot, doesn’t it?”

“Eh. Sometimes, yeah.” Once Sully made it across, the three looked up a stairway at the end of the hall and smiled.

“ _Now_ it looks like we’re getting somewhere.”

“After that, we’d better be,” Jack smirked as he led the three up the tunnel stairs to another antechamber with a large hole in the stone of the far wall. “The temple must’ve been built around this thing.”

“Well, what is it?” Sully asked as they looked around.

“Looks like some sort of idol.” Carmen examined the strange grooves in the ground and found some dirt, which contained shiny yellow flakes. “A _gold_ idol.”

“A _huge_ gold idol.” Sully smiled as he looked at the carvings around it. “And look here: these people… they’re worshipping the damn thing. At least… I think they’re people.”

“Must’ve thought it was a gift from their gods.” Jack theorized. Then it hit him as soon as he found some writing and translated it to Spanish as best he could. “Of course. El _Hombre_ Dorado.”

“The Golden _Man_?” Carmen asked, confused.

“Exactly; it wasn’t a _city_ made of gold, it was this. It was the statue.”

“Man… can you imagine what that thing must be worth now?” Sully said in awe.

“Yeah, I can. Which is exactly why I’m happy we got here before VILE.” Carmen looked around. “But where is the damn thing?”

“Over here – Tracks.” Indeed, there were strange groves in the stone near the indent. “the conquistadors must’ve dragged the thing out on cut logs.”

“Tch. Then we’re about four centuries late for the fiesta.” Carmen said in dull anger.

“So the trail’s cold.” Sully groaned.

“Yeah, so it seems.” Jack agreed.

“Sunuva _bitch_!” Sully growled.

Then Carmen snapped her fingers. “Unless…” She smiled as she started to walk after the grooves. “Cmon, I think we can still find it.” Quickly, Jack and Sully went after Carmen, who suddenly felt a cold breeze blowing down the tunnel, which led to the outside.

But… “Huh. Tracks stop here.” Indeed, the trail went cold again once they reached the foliage outside the broken temple wall.

“Yeah, looks like the Spanish blew out the back wall with gunpowder,” Jack said, inspecting the wreckage. “Must’ve been a shortcut to get the loot out.”

“Swell. Now, what?” asked Sully, growing impatient.

“Well, a gold structure like that must’ve been massively heavy. They can’t have carried it far, so they may have had a ship waiting nearby.” Quickly, she turned on her coms. “Player, where’s the nearest body of water to our current location?”

“ _Checking…_ ” Player quickly looked around his maps and found it. “ _Got it. There’s a river a few yards away from you. Flood season causes the water level to rise high enough for a ship to get in for cargo. Marking the location on your shade-HUD._ ”

Carmen quickly slapped on a pair of _stylin’_ red sunglasses, which instantly showed her which way to go. “Right this way, boys.” She quickly led the two down an arroyo until they heard the waterfall of the river. And once they rounded a corner and saw the water, what else they saw stunned them beyond words.

“Are you kidding me…?” Sully asked in awe.

“Player, please tell me you’re seeing this,” Carmen asked her young partner.

“ _Yep, getting the feed from your shades clear as day,_ ” he replied, just as stunned as the others. “ _But can you guys tell me what exactly it is, just so I’m sure?_ ”

“Uh… Nazi U-boat.” Jack replied bluntly.


	4. A Surprising Find

_Location: Near a River in the Amazon Rainforest, Bolivia_

_Time: 3 minutes after last time-card_

“Okay, I know this is filthy rich coming from me, but this might just be one of the weirdest things I’ve ever come across in this line of work.” Carmen raised an eyebrow. “How’d this thing even get here?”

“Must’ve come up the river in the flood season and gotten stuck.” Jack theorized with a smirk. “Let’s check it out, huh?”

“Nah, wait-wait-wait.” Sully stopped him. “Somethin’ about this feels kinda hinky.”

“‘Hinky’? Really?” asked Carmen. Sully nodded and she smirked. “You act like you’ve never seen a Nazi U-boat in the middle of the jungle before.”

“Nah, I’m bein’ serious, kid,” Sully argued.

Jack just chuckled. “Alright, tell ya what; why don’t you stay here, Carmen and I will check it out ourselves. We’ll give ya a holler if we run into any Nazis.”

“Yeah right. You do that.” Sully shrugged.

“Oop. Wait-wait-wait-wait…” Jack realized as he pulled out Drake’s journal. “Hang onto this for me, will ya?” He tossed it to Sully who caught it no problem. Jack let out a breath and rubbed his hands together. “Okay! Looks like we’re gonna have to do this the hard way.”

“Not necessary,” Carmen smirked, grabbing him. “Hold tight.” She fired her grappling hook onto the bow of the sub and zipped the two of them up to the deck.

“Hey guys, when was your last tetanus shot?” Sully called.

“Hoho… that’s funny!” Jack smirked back to him as he and Carmen dove down the main hatch.

“Alright, we’re in,” said Carmen.

“ _Whaddaya see?_ ” Sully asked over the radio.

“Eh, cobwebs, rusty junk… decaying swastikas.” Carmen smirked that last bit.

“Yeah, but something nasty happened to these guys.” Jack nodded, running his fingers along the stain on the ground. “There’s blood everywhere.” He licked his fingers and was surprised. “Ooh. And soup.”

“ _What?!_ ” Sully was rightly confused.

“Eh, never mind. Look, we’re headed for the crew-quarters now.” Jack replied as he slid through a small door to a cargo area. He opened the rusty hatch with some effort, but once it was clear he and Carmen jumped through to find a communication room. The two looked around until Jack saw a _very_ dead body in the door. “Eugh…” Jack pulled the body out of the door in disgust but was surprised to hear the sound of coins scattering across metal flooring.

Carmen looked and was shocked to find this man had just dropped a bunch of gold doubloons, one of which she picked up. “This job just keeps getting weirder and weirder.” She looked at the dead Nazi with a smirk. “So where’d you get this, old rotty?” She just stood and pocketed it along with Jack as they moved on, allowing him to turn on the radio.

“I think the trail just got warm again,” he smirked.

“ _How so?_ ” asked Sully.

“Well, we just found a guy with Spanish gold in his pants, only the coins are stamped with a mint-mark I’ve never seen before,” Carmen explained, marveling at the coin.

“ _You’re kiddin’ me._ ”

“Nope. Looks like everyone’s old friend Herr Hitler had a little secret.” Carmen smirked. “We’re moving on. Stay in touch.”

“ _Understood._ ” Eventually, the two’s search through the ship found them in the crew-quarters just as planned, though they were in a state of intense disrepair.

“Cozy.” Jack joked.

“Yeah, if you’re into the whole ‘tetanus and hypothermia’ thing.” Carmen shrugged as they moved on through the next door. Jack saw a large map on the wall and opposite it, a curtained bunk. Quickly he drew the curtain to find the captain in a ripe-old state.

“Agh! Ugh, that’s gross.” He pulled out the radio. “We’re in the captain’s quarters. And get this; the guy’s still here.”

“ _What’s that supposed to mean?_ ” asked Sully.

“It means he still hasn’t fully decayed,” Carmen explained. “Still, looks like he was killed. Ripped apart, really. Nasty way to go, even for a Nazi.”

“ _Yeah, sounds terrible. Check his wallet._ ”

Jack smirked at that. “You’re all heart, Sully.” He moved the captain’s rotten hand and found in his clutches a hand-drawn map of an island… with writing he recognized. “No friggin’ way.” He quickly tossed some stuff off a table nearby and laid the map on it.

“What? What is it?” Carmen looked and saw a Kriegsmarine map of the exact same island as the hand-drawn one. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“ _Find anything, guys?_ ” asked Sully.

“Think so,” Carmen replied. “Stand by.”

Jack quickly folded both maps and looked at the one on the wall. “UK2642.” He mulled over that as he scanned the map for that area, and smiled when he landed his finger on it. “Boom.”

“ _You guys okay?_ ”

“Sully, you’re not gonna believe this,” Jack replied.

“ _Try me._ ”

“I think we just found our missing page.”

“ _Ye’re shittin’ me._ ”

“Looks like Grandpa Francis and Der Führer were after the same treasure,” Jack explained. “And we’ve got the map that’ll lead us right to it.”

“ _Jack, this better not be another wild-goose chase. We’ve gotta get something outta this trip or-_ ” Suddenly his voice cut out, confusing the two.

“Or what?” asked Jack. But no reply. “Sully? You there? Sullivan.”

“Player, we just lost Sully. You got his location?” asked Carmen.

“ _Yeah, he’s still outside the ship. But he won’t respond._ ”

“Guess we’re just gonna have to find him the old-fashioned way.” Jack shrugged. Carefully, the two clambered out toward the torpedo bay, but the hatch hit a stack of torpedoes and knocked them over, accidentally arming one of them. “Ohh, that’s not good.”

“Yeah, we should leave. Like, now.” Carmen had sound logic there as the two ran and dove out through a torpedo tube, swimming to the shore once outside… only to find a buff American man and a Brazilian guy with an AK waiting for them.

“Howdy, Black Sheep.” the American smirked, offering a hand to Carmen.

“Buck.” Carmen scowled, pulling herself out of the water. “Been a long time.”

The guy with the gun grabbed Jack by the arm and pulled him out roughly. “Hey, hey. Watch it, asshole.” He pulled his arm away and looked at Carmen as the merc took his gun. “You know these guys, Sully?”

“Name’s Buck N. Bronco.” The American smiled.

“Yeah, I know who you are, asshat.” Jack scowled.

“Manners, son.” Buck smiled. “You must understand this is just business.”

“Get over there.” the merc pushed the two over to Sully.

“Hey-hey, watch the coat,” Carmen growled.

“Hands up.”

“Alright, sheesh.”

“See, your friend here owes us money, Mr. Carol,” Buck smirked villainously. “And a lot of it. So when my man heard him say you were onto something big in Panama; ‘the find of a lifetime’, he told me… well, I was interested, to say the least.” Jack scowled over at Sully, silently blaming him for blabbing. “But he’s made big promises like this before. Haven’t ya, Sully? And here we are again, with you having nothing to show for your efforts.”

“Sheesh, does he always go on like this?” Jack groaned.

“Oof, you should’ve heard him in training.” Carmen’s smirk was diminished by the mercenary behind them hitting them both with his gun, knocking them to their knees.

“Easy there, Diaz.” Buck calmed his man. “We don’t want ‘em _too_ badly hurt.” He chuckled. “Welp! Looks like your time’s up. Unless, a-course, you found some sorta compensation in that old tub, Black Sheep.”

“The name’s Carmen now, Buck.” she scowled. “And why don’t ya go look yourself?”

“He’s screwin’ with ya, guys; they heard everything.” Sully shrugged. “Just give ‘em the map.” Jack let out a low sigh and moved to grab it.

“Slowly,” Diaz added.

“Yeah, yeah.” Jack just rolled his eyes and pulled out the map, which Diaz grabbed and walked over to Buck.

“What does a Kriegsmarine map have to do with El Dorado?”

“What, you think this is just a coincidence?” asked Sully. “Hitler was after the same treasure. That map has something to do with it.” Buck glanced at Sully but then looked back at the map. “So, we square?”

“Absolutely,” Buck smirked, folding the map and pocketing it. “Couldn’t be squarer.” Then he pulled a revolver out. “But just in case you need a reminder…” He pointed the gun at Jack’s face.

“Hey-hey-hey, cmon Buck, leave them outta this.”

“Yeah cmon, don’t you guys usually just cut a finger off or something?” asked Jack.

“Nah, too low even for me,” Buck replied, cocking his gun. “‘Sides, I think this’ll hurt a little more.”

“Now, whoa-whoa-whoa. Cmon Buck, they’ve got nothing to do with-” Sully didn’t get to finish that thought as Buck just shifted his aim and shot _him_ in the chest, sending him to the ground.

“SULLY!” Jack yelled and charged Buck, getting blocked by Diaz. “You sunuvaBITCH!” Suddenly the sub started exploding, thanks to the torpedo the two had accidentally armed.

“Whoa!” Carmen yelled as they were all knocked down by the blast, which killed many of Bronco’s men who were stupid enough to be on the ship when it blew. Jack looked back at Sully with a pained look in his eye but finally, he and Carmen started running into the jungle, dodging gunfire all the way. Suddenly as the two were turning a corner, they suddenly came face to face with an American brunette with brown eyes… and a movie camera for some reason.

“Whoa there cowboy.” Jack sighed calmly and relaxed until she punched him in the face. “That’s for ditching me on that dock.”

“Ugh yeah, nice to see you too Lana.” Jack groaned, nursing his face. “Now what the hell are you doin’ here?!”

“Listen, I’m a good-enough reporter to follow a couple of no-luck tomb robbers!” Lana argued. Jack quickly shushed her and moved against the wall along with Carmen as Buck’s men ran past.

“They went this way! Spread out and kill them!” one of them yelled.

“Well, you’re down to just one tomb robber and a couple world-class thieves now,” Jack explained. “Sully’s dead.”

“What?” Lana asked surprised.

“Yeah, and we’re next if we don’t get back to the truck,” Carmen growled.

“Oh god, I’m- I’m sorry.” Lana was interrupted by Jack just waving a hand at her.

“Look, just- please tell me you have a gun.”

“Of course.” Lana handed him a 9-mil. and he smiled.

“Thanks. Cmon, let’s go.” He quickly led the trio away from this craggy hiding place, allowing Carmen to get on the coms.

“Zack, get the truck ready. We’re comin’ in hot.”

“ _You got it, Red._ ” Quickly the group ran through a set of large ruins, filled with mercenaries firing on the three.

“You always seem to be getting shot at,” Lana smirked.

“Hey, they’re shootin’ at us too, y’know.” Carmen pointed out. “By the way, I don’t think I ever caught your name.”

“Lana Fisher. You?”

Carmen knew she couldn’t risk revealing her real name, so she quickly came up with a good-sounding alias. “Maria de Vasquez.”

“Pleasure.” Lana smiled, firing at another goon and allowing Jack to pick up his AK.

“Cmon, let’s go,” he said as he climbed up a ledge to see a goon in the hallway.

“Remember; shoot to kill!” he ordered.

Jack smirked and aimed his handgun at the guy’s head. “If you insist.” One pull of the trigger and he was on the ground in less than a second. They kept running and shooting in every direction until they were finally just a quick jog from the 4x4.

“Cmon guys, let’s go!” Ivy yelled, firing at some mercenaries who were getting too close for comfort. “We gotta get outta here now!” Quickly, the group jumped into the truck which gave Zack the cue he needed to floor it out of the jungle.

“You always been this popular?” asked Lana.

“Well, I do seem to attract the scum of the earth,” Jack smirked. “Uh y’know, no offense.”

“None taken.” Lana and Carmen jinxed.

The two looked at each other in confusion but Carmen just shrugged and got back on the coms. “Player, I need you to track Kriegsmarine coordinates UK2642.”

“ _On it._ ” Player quickly started searching.

“Where’s that?” asked Lana.

“Where the conquistadors took El Dorado,” Jack replied, not even bothering to be subtle. “Problem is, the guys who killed Sully have the same coordinates.”

“So if the Spanish found the loot, they have to have moved it to this island.” Ivy nodded in understanding.

“Yeah. And Grandpa followed ‘em.” Jack agreed.

“Well, what’re we waiting for?” Lana smirked. “I’ll get the story and you get… whatever it is you’re after.”

“Well hey, this ain’t gonna be a vacation y’know.” Jack reminded.

“I can take care of myself,” Lana argued. “Besides, you owe me one for ditching me.”

Jack smirked. “Yeah. I suppose I do.”


End file.
